Excessive use of force
The major law enforcement bust on a private racetrack in Idaho that made headlines last week has now garnered more attention after multiple accusations of excessive use of force.
Sunday’s raid on suspected gambling venue La Cathedral Arena involved hundreds of law enforcement agents, including the FBI and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and left advocates claiming immigrants were targeted.
police firing rubber bullets
On Monday, however, Newsweek waded into the controversial raid with a headline stating that children were zip-tied during the swoop on a “family event” with police firing rubber bullets.
While only four suspects named in the FBI’s illegal-gambling linked warrant were taken into custody Sunday, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has confirmed ICE arrested “105 migrants without legal status during the operation.”
Polarizing bust
The raid has had a polarizing effect on the US, with social media awash with those enraged by the treatment of migrants and kids, and those praising the actions of ICE.
Advocates and lawyers, such as immigration attorney Nikki Ramirez-Smith, however, condemned law enforcement officials’ treatment of children.
“There’s going to be a lot of kids who were severely traumatized by being tied up,” Ramirez told Newsweek. Utah-based immigration attorney Viviana Gonzalez told The Idaho Statesman that her family was at La Cathedral “for their clothing business when agents arrived and zip-tied her 13-year-old sister,” and her mother, and took her father “behind vans.”
There were younger children than her that they saw were being zip-tied.”
“This is not something that a U.S. citizen, 13-year-old girl, should ever experience,” Gonzalez told The Idaho Statesman. “There were younger children than her that they saw were being zip-tied.”
Ramirez-Smith said hysteria spread among those at the racetrack after rumors circulated about what law enforcement were doing to the children, resulting in police firing rubber bullets at a crowd demanding answers. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, all children held were eventually released.
Mixed messages
Ramirez-Smith likened the La Cathedral event to a rodeo, where not everyone attends to gamble, stating that “90% of people there are not gambling.”
Commenting on Sunday’s events, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said “ICE dismantled an illegal horse-racing, animal fighting, and a gambling enterprise operation.” She then warned that “under President Trump and Secretary Noem, we are dismantling criminal networks in the United States.”
The FBI said, however, that ICE’s presence at the raid “was separate from the criminal gambling investigation being led by the FBI.”
